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Although processors can be a significant source of fishery-based employment and rent generation, land-based processors are often not included in analyses of fishery management impacts, gene...

In an already large, complex Japanese seafood market, demand for ecolabeled seafood can vary across consumer segments in a way that may have important implications for marketing strategies for sustainable seafood. In contrast to previous studies of consumers’ willingness to pay for ecolabeled seafood, this article analyzes retailers’ best pricing strategy when consumer preferences for ecolabeled seafood are heterogeneous. An auction experiment involving consumers in Tokyo is analyzed with a latent class model to estimate variation in willingness to pay, differentiated by consumer characteristics. Results show that there is heterogeneity in price premiums, implying that representative consumer estimates are misleading. Further, higher premiums are not easily associated with observable demographic factors or high willingness to pay for the unlabeled product, leading to a complex pricing problem for retailers who wish to capture maximum revenue through price pairs for unlabeled seafood and seafood be...

In 2009, Rhode Island implemented a pilot catch share program around summer flounder, or fluke, a state-managed species that is jointly harvested with the Northeast Multispecies groundfish complex. A sector was given a fluke allocation to land when they wished, while the rest of the fleet was managed through sub-seasonal total harvest caps and daily trip limits. Sector members avoided fluke landings during seasonal fluke derbies, instead shifting landings to post-derby closures in the general fishery, when the price was higher. However, they also affected prices of species they targeted instead. We combine predictions of counterfactual 2009 daily landings by sector vessels with a panel model of trip-level ex-vessel prices for 25 products targeted by the groundfish fleet to project what revenues would have been in the absence of the sector program. We find the pilot program increased fleetwide revenues by over $800,000, including benefits of over $250,000 to non-sector vessels. JEL Classification ...

Transferable allowance management systems are receiving increased attention from fishery managers and stakeholders alike. We use a laboratory experiment in which human subjects play the role of fishers to evaluate the promised economic efficiency of tradable allowance systems. In an experiment designed to parallel the most common rules for trading allowances, we find that allowance prices are only weakly associated with the value of the fishing right it provides. Instead, we find a high degree of price variability, consistent with field experiences. In the lab, this variability hampers convergence and supports speculation, leading to average prices much higher than the equilibrium value of allowances. During this protracted price discovery, allowances are misallocated and efficiency falls. Modifications to the market institutions used in most tradable allowance systems to improve price discovery and enhance efficiency are discussed.